Wherein I discuss whatever comes to mind… seriously, whatever!

Quitcherbitchin’

I apparently have some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder left over from last week’s training. If one more person had gone through the trouble of throwing themselves, or the teaching profession as a whole, a pity party, I think I would have gone completely postal. While teaching is not an easy profession, certainly not everyone should be a teacher, it’s not the hardest job in the world. Has it gotten harder even in the past decade, yes. Is this reason to be whinin’, cryin’, and pitchin’ a fit? Probably not. If teaching has gotten harder, than so has learning. We MAKE our students do it, right? (Right?)

Now I can wax poetic better than most about the slings and arrows that are committed against teachers and students in the name of progress or “accountability”. That said, if you don’t like it LEAVE! Seriously you cannot have gotten into this profession for the accolades, the public praise, the excellent benefit and retirement package, the pay, or, GOD FORBID, because “you really like kids.” You got into this profession for other reasons (please don’t say June, July and August because I WILL hunt you down and kill you).

Teaching is, no doubt, hard. Teachers perform every day to a stage of 20 to 160 students, their parents, administrators, and district office personnel. The exceptional among us play to many more than that. Every day we’re spinning lessons to make sure students get what they need to be productive adults. Some days we’re spinning our wheels because we can’t see WHY the lesson isn’t making sense. This isn’t a job, it’s a thankless task (like the MIB — Men in Black), really it’s a cult. You live it 24/7. NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE, wants to go out to eat with teachers because ALL we do is TALK SHOP.

That said, if this ISN’T what you signed up for, then please move along. Get a friend to stage an intervention, get some deprogramming, get your brain flashed, and then move onto a nice cubical life in some insurance company somewhere. The ignorance which will surround you will feel vaguely comforting.